At the beginning of the twentieth century, the port of Venice was second in importance only to the port of Genoa. In order to compete industrially and productively with other markets in the Mediterranean, Venice began to expand on land.

A group of entrepreneurs stepped onto the Venetian scene with a clear international vision, looking to redefine the city's role in large-scale industry. As a result Venice took a quantum leap in terms of capital and business management. According to historians of the time, the "Venetian Group" was represented by Count Giuseppe Volpi of Misrata, Vittorio Cini and Achille Gaggia, who led the city's economic and cultural development before the outbreak of the Second World War.

In June 1917, Count Volpi founded the company Porto Industriale (Venice Port Industry), and the following month he promoted the signing of an agreement between the company and the State and the city of Venice. It announced the birth of a completely new city within Venice: Porto Marghera.

This area, where oil and coal were transported by rail, was officially born and the Vittorio Emanuele Canal was dug to connect to the Giudecca Canal.

In the 1930s, the first factories were built here; one of them, eighty years later, became the production site for zintek® titanium-zinc sheets.

The plant is located in Via delle Industrie, next to a private marina where ships can dock.

The zinc ore owned by zintek® comes from the Montevecchio mine in Sardinia, when Montecatini, the company that managed the plant, decided to produce not only zinc metal but also zinc metal by-products.

By treating zinc metal using electrolysis, it was possible to obtain zinc cathodes, which in turn led to zinc ingot blocks, alloys, cold rolled sheets, wire and other products.Between 1936 and 1940, sophisticated chemical and physical laboratories were set up here to analyse and test new products. The plant carried out in-depth research activities and became one of the landmark companies in non-ferrous metallurgy in the Venice Industrial Park. During the Second World War, the plant suffered heavy damage when the Allies considered the entire area of Porto Magra a key target. Fortunately, it was immediately rebuilt and production resumed in the early 1950s.

After the turbulent times of the 60s and 70s in the harbour of Magra, 

the new zinc-copper-titanium alloy zintek® was already being produced in the early 80s at the plant, which was then a state-owned enterprise owned by Eni. Since 1984, zintek® has been widely marketed in 

Europe, where it has sold more than a few thousand tonnes alone, and has been upgraded to gain a larger market share.

In 1997, Eni decided to retain only the oil, engineering and services divisions; the metallurgical plants, 

including this one, were privatised and taken over by the Venetian holding company Cordifin Group, a multinational conglomerate involved in industry, real estate and finance.

The company invests heavily in production and promotion, which has enabled it to secure a leading position in the international market. More than 100,000 tons of materials are produced annually, including: cold-rolled sheets for construction, die-cast alloys, aluminium alloys, centrifugal casting alloys, zinc wire and zintek® titanium-zinc sheets.